ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

190 NanoTechnology
10 NanoTechnology
Functional communication among biomolecules and technological devices
will require dramatic advances in our abilities to fashion logic devices from
matter. The attainable limit appears to be computer components precisely
structured at the atomic level, on the order of 0.1–0.3 nanometers. Nanoscale
fabrication of information devices capable of biological interfacing would also
enable construction of valuable nanoscale robots, sensors, and machines
(Schneiker, 1986). Ultimate computing may be but a single facet of a wide range
of applications: “nanotechnology.”
10.1 Early NanoTechnologists
The American Physical Society held its 1959 annual meeting at the California
Institute of Technology. Scheduled to speak was a man who would win the 1965
Nobel physics prize for his historic work in quantum electrodynamics. Still later
he would serve on a Presidential Commission and find the fault in the Challenger
disaster in a disturbingly brief period of time. In 1959 however, he spoke of other
work that may be even more important. In his talk entitled There’s Plenty of
Room at the Bottom, physicist Richard Feynman (1961) proposed a simple and
straightforward strategy for constructing useful structures ranging in size down to
the atomic scale! He suggested using machine tools to make many more sets of
much smaller machine tools, which would in turn make many times that number
of other, even smaller machine tools, and so on. At the lowest level, he noted the
possibility of mechanically assembling molecules, an atom at a time.
Feynman proposed the construction of nanomachines, nanotools, tiny
computers, molecular scale robots, new materials and other exotic products which
would have far reaching applications and benefits. Considering the relevance of
nanotechnology to living molecules, Feynman (1961) noted,
A biological system can be exceedingly small ... . Consider the
possibility that we too can make a thing very small, which does what
we want-that we can manufacture an object that maneuvers at that
level!
Machines able to directly manipulate matter on the submicron to nanometer
size scale are referred to as “Feynman Machines” (FMs). The only existing FMs
currently known are biological, however computer controlled or teleoperated FMs
may in the future implement a broad range of nanotech applications.
Following Feynman’s lead, other scientists delved into nanotechnology. Von
Hippel (1962) predicted dramatic material science possibilities if new advances in
“molecular designing” and “molecular engineering” of materials could be
achieved. Noting the eventual possibility for repairing human tissue (molecule by
molecule if necessary) for life extension, Ettinger (1964) suggested repair
machinery for modification and interaction with existing organisms; later he
proposed development of nanorobotics. Ettinger envisioned nanoscale scavenger
and guardian organisms designed to emulate and surpass the actions of white
blood cells which might hunt down and clean out hostile or damaging invaders
(Ettinger, 1972). Such nanorobots might be useful for fighting AIDS or cancer,
excavating blocked blood vessels, or straightening neurofibrillary tangles in senile
neurons.
Shoulders (1965) reported the actual operation of micromanipulators able to
position tiny items with 10 nm accuracy while under direct observar tion by field
ion microscopy. Ellis (1962). also developed similar (but much larger)